Israel began the ground phase of Operation «Gideon's Chariots II» yesterday around 22:00. Today, the start of the operation was confirmed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The goal of the operation is to establish operational control over the city of Gaza. It is expected that the operation will take about three months.
As noted by the author of the Telegram channel «Falafel» Marianna Belenkaya, by the start of the ground operation, about 350,000 residents out of more than a million had left the city of Gaza. Israel had persistently warned about the operation for weeks and offered evacuation to safe humanitarian zones in Gaza.
According to Israeli intelligence, a maximum of 2000–2500 trained armed Hamas terrorists remain in the city of Gaza, hundreds of whom have retreated to the city center. In addition, the terrorist organization has recruited thousands of militants aged 14 and older for the deployment of explosive devices and launching anti-tank missiles.
The fate of the hostages remaining in Gaza is in question, although the IDF is trying to act carefully in areas where intelligence reports indicate hostages are present. At the same time, it is known that Hamas uses hostages as human shields.
The future of the city of Gaza and the Gaza Strip as a whole is not determined, at least officially. Meanwhile, during a visit to Israel, Marco Rubio hinted that the US agreed to the operation, although he did not say it directly, nor did he condemn the operation.
«The people of Gaza deserve a better future, but it cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated and until all hostages, both living and deceased, return home», stated the US Secretary of State. He also added that for a ceasefire agreement, «there are no more months, but probably days and possibly a few weeks».
«Our preference, our priority choice is to end the conflict through negotiated settlement», Rubio said amid the ground operation, noting that «Hamas must be neutralized, and we hope this will happen through negotiations», but «time is running out».
Meanwhile, at the Arab-Islamic summit in Doha, Arab countries with relations with Israel have not yet severed these agreements, including no one has withdrawn from the «Abraham Accords», but Israel was threatened that such an option could be. In addition, a resolution was adopted condemning Israel's «aggression» and proposing to consider whether Israel's membership in the UN Charter is appropriate.
Photo: AFP